PrimordialAA & Simpledude16 Videopack Reviews

Okay, let me start with giving you some background about me as a Pokerplayer, I am primarily a midstakes NLHE HU and shorthanded cashgame player, who looks to broaden his game into ”spins” due to its availability around the clock, so it suits me perfectly when games are bad, or even nonexistant. That said, I do not have any experience prior to ”spins” in SNGs, and for a few thousand game ive tried to play a mixture of observed ranges aswell as my own btn,sb,bb ranges in shorthanded play and that unsuccessfully sadly. This have angered me a great bit, to the point of frustration so I figured instead of wasting more time being very inefficient at reworking my ranges and overall in ”spins” id snap this videopackage up, if it just increases my chipEV a little bit it is money earned within weeks so in reality no money is lost, on the contrary there is only to be won. That said, this was GREAT stuff for me, a few days in on the grind ive realized how far off I was in ALOT of spots, my overall chipEV have increased a TON to the levels of what they basically never were even on my good days where I ran good card distribution wise because I were just doing to much dumb unnecessary crap, excuse my tone. I feel that by writing this review that I hurt my bottom line alot but to be honest but that wouldnt be in line with my life philosophies, amongst these is credit should be given where credits due so I guess ill just have to chalk up the -EV of having a few miniprimos and minidudes at the tables with me. 🙂 The package itself that big, three videos that go over ranges in each position, to my liking as ive done that enough in my days it skips the ”tutorials” or ”how to” build ranges and using tools and whatnot, just jumps into what they percieve to be the optimal ranges at each and every spot and talks about it in depth, they are also stressing how important it is to have a good game against recreationals as they are representing a much bigger unit in percents than in most other games today, so focusing on solely reg v reg ranges or nash isnt the best play to beat recreationals. it got two seperate gameplay videos, one being ”spins” and one focusing on HU play. Additionally package also contains HH-reviews of another player outside of these two and their analysis of each and every hand throughout his games aswell as a video (well kinda a PODcast as there isnt much visualmagic going on in that one) where they talk about regs vs recs topic some more. If I were to talk about any negatives, id wish id been more actual gameplay and a more in-depth breakdown of HU ranges as im no HU hyper player myself but in truth that is easily ”supplemented” with the insane amount of HU-hyper material out there. All in all I loved watching these guys play, mainly because it is rare to see/hear two top players discussing spots ”live” and even in some spots maybe not even coming to an agreement so they pull up the pokerstars replayer and go through it again, basically its nice to hear different takes on it as I feel sometimes that when videomakers get caught in their loop of thinking they have a hard time getting out of it. Im sadly expecting to see alot of guys at the felt with the same ranges as I in the near future, but then again, when I have identified them as ”users” to take a phrase from TRON I can make the proper adjustments since I know the ranges and there in lies some additional (possibly in the future - biggest) value of the package!

Robert

I play as YugiohPro on Pokerstars. My hand historys are analyzed in this video series, and I am currently a student and friend of simpledude16. I paid full retail price to preorder this video pack and have just finished watching it. Here is my objective review. I'm primarily a mid to high stakes MTT player. I've been very successful since 2012 but had avery swingy year in 2014. I watch training videos on a multitude of sites and have recently become disillusioned with the poker coaching industry. I feel like a lot of coaches who put together video packs and sell coaching packages are no longer beating the games solidly. Instead, they are hoping to prolong their poker careers through coaching. I met simpledude16 in March of 2015 and he has been coaching me since then. The advice he has given me has changed the entire way I think about poker and also has changed my life. I was on a very swingy life trajectory as a high stakes MTT professional with a small edge on the game. I now feel I am one of the elite regulars and will have sustained success for a long time. This is due to simpledude16's coaching. I became a believer for two reasons. One, he has incredible results in high stakes heads up SNG and 6-max SNG. Two, and more important, I have actually cross verified a lot of his advice with Cardrunners EV and Simple Postflop (a program that generates Game Theory Optimal strategies for flops turns and rivers). The man is just sharply on point with all of his advice. Out of all of the successful professionals I have talked with and learned from, he is the best poker mind I know. The Video Pack has 7 sections totalling 5+ hours of content. It's basically PrimordialAA (a very well known and respected HUSNG regular who I don't know personally) and simpledude16 talking a lot of poker strategy. Unlike most coaches, these two players are definitely still crushing the game and thinking about poker at a much higher level than the average MTT, SNG, or cash player. I would bet my entire net worth that simpledude would ravage any top MTT pro in a headsup or shorthanded situation. The two of them have been friends for a long time and have a very good rapport together. The overall feel to the video is very relaxed. Both of them have soothing voices and play off each other nicely. PrimordialAA will often ask simpledude16 what his strategy is on a spot, and then come in with his well reasoned thoughts as well. I think the two man format works great for a series like this. Unfortunately, the site only allows you to stream the videos. I assume this is to fight piracy. The stream is very fast and hasn't hiccuped or delayed once for me. It might be a little concerning though if the site ever goes down and you lose access to something you paid for. Section 1: Button Ranges. Section 2: Small Blind Ranges. Section 3: Big Blind Ranges. The first 3 sections deal with ranges. Button ranges, small blind ranges, and big blind ranges. PrimordialAA and simpledude construct reshoving ranges versus opens, calling ranges out of the blinds, opening ranges, and talk about different setups that might lead to variations in the ranges. They provide ranges for deeper 17-25bb stack sizes, 11-16bb setups, then 10bb pushing ranges. I think these sections are incredible and very different from other videos that deal with this subject matter. For example, in the SB vs BB strategy, they lay out a set of hands that SB should limp with at 17-25bb ranges. I have not seen many other video makers talk about realistic limping ranges. Then, at 11-16bb ranges, the limping strategy for SB changes, but in a way that makes sense and is clearly explained. Overall I think there are a number of new concepts for everyone in these videos. The limping strategies are a clear example (nobody really limps enough in my games). But there are a number of them in the series. Elite HU players don't play the same c-bet strategy that deepstacked cash game players or mediocre MTT players do. They play an open and c-bet strategy that is very similar to game theory optimal and very fundamentally sharp. Section 4: Live Play and Section 5: HU Live Play These sections are each over an hour and packed with information. I have a philosophy that watching elite players just play hands one after another is actually one of the best ways to learn poker. There is so much to learn in these two parts by just following along as two of the best just play hands and explain their decisions. This section is a bit too fast. I get the sense that simpledude16 just sometimes runs out of time (he nearly times out frequently which stresses me out as a viewer!). But if you go back and watch the actions and deconstruct his logic, these are jam packed with optimal poker strategy. Players of simpledude16 and PrimordialAA's caliber don't release content very often. I try to watch everything every training video I can that features a really top tier player (such as Sauce123 or Phil Galfond). Unfortunately those players only release like one video a month. I think PrimordialAA and simpledude, while maybe not on that level, are definitely heads and shoulders above anyone else I would want to watch on any site out there. So yeah these sections are a bit too fast to keep up with, but rewind them, replay them, take notes on how they handle spots, and it's just pure gold. Section 6: HH Review So these are actually my hand histories. I'm currently being coached by an elite HU regular, M@D@M@D@D@NE, who also has a very high opinion of both simpledude16 and PrimordialAA. Even though I probably play spins at a higher level than the average bear, I was actually shocked at how many leaks both of them found in my games. And it was only 3 games total! When simpledude told me the series was out, I opened this section first like a fish and watched all of it. There really was a lot to learn and the format and pacing are perfect for this section. I really like how the two play off each other in this one. Secton 7: Reg vs Rec This is a short section but the two go into a lot of differences between playing versus a regular and a recreational. There is a lot of content in this section that I haven't found in any other training material. Summary: This series costs $499 for over 5 hours of content. I think the long and short of it is that simpledude's coaching is easily worth $500+/hr. So this video series will pay for itself many times over. In fact, when he told me he was working on a video series, I told him it should cost four figures at minimum. After all, working with him has close to tripled my yearly EV. I have paid for coaching in the past from other elite MTTers and honestly this stuff is on another level entirely.